European Parliament Begins Review of EC Copyright Reform Plan, With Mixed Results
A tight vote by the first European Parliament panel to vet proposed copyright reform rules shows how hard the struggle for user rights could be, said one lawmaker and several digital rights activists. Five committees are reviewing the European Commission proposal to update copyright laws, headed by the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI). Among issues are whether internet platforms should monitor user uploads, whether companies such as Google should pay for linking to news sites, and whether there should be a copyright exception for user-generated content (UGC). Small majorities that decided the final June 8 vote by the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committee highlight "how close this fight is," said Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Julia Reda, of Germany and the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance.
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JURI has overall responsibility for responding to the EC proposal, but IMCO has joint responsibility for the "Commission's extreme proposal to force internet companies to implement upload filtering," said European Digital Rights Executive Director Joe McNamee. The EC wants to "reinforce the position of right holders to negotiate and conclude agreements for the online exploitation of their content by online service providers with a significant impact on the online content market that store and provide access to the public to user uploaded content," a commission Q&A said. Its proposal would require service providers to "take appropriate and proportionate measures," such as by content recognition technologies, to ensure user uploaded works are protected.
The opinion approved by IMCO removes the obligation for platforms to use upload filters (also called "censorship machines"), Reda wrote. It strengthens users' ability to contest the takedown of content they uploaded, she said. While the IMCO draft isn't perfect, "the text removes all of the worst elements" of the EC proposal, McNamee said.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is happy about the blow struck against the upload filtering proposal, said Senior Global Policy Analyst Jeremy Malcolm. EFF doesn't expect the Culture and Education Committee (which votes on its opinion June 21) "to come to the same position, and it is hard to imagine that striking a compromise will be easy," he told us. The IMCO opinion includes a proposal seeking a copyright exception for internet practices such as reaction GIFs, memes and other forms of UGC, which shows consensus is growing for legalized UGC, said Reda.
IMCO members failed to amend EC plans to create "neighboring" copyright protection for press publishers. Under the proposal, news publishers would have the same rights as, for example, film producers and broadcasters to sign agreements in their own right with online service providers or to sue for infringement, the EC said. The "link tax" idea has been "widely discredited," said Malcolm.
The European Publishers Council praised the panel for taking a "golden opportunity to do the right thing and vote for a copyright proposal that acknowledges the role that press publishers play in our precious democracy by investing in a free and independent professional press." The neighboring right will make it easier to stop routine copying, reuse and monetization of publishers' content without permission, and ensure that companies wishing to use that content hash out agreements, it said.
Following the June 21 CULT vote, there will be further votes on opinions by the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (June 29); Industry, Research and Energy Committee (July 11); and JURI Committee (September 23), said McNamee. The EC proposal is under review in Council preparatory bodies, and "there is no timeline on when EU ministers will discuss the reform of copyright rules," said a council press officer.